Mid-week report: the good and the bad

The good is that things are going much better this week despite the fact I caught a cold on Monday. It slowed me down a little and threw the schedule around because while I planned to wake up and train every morning, it was impossible to face getting up at 5:15 for an interval session with the dullness that comes with a cold. But it is clearing now on the back of mega-doses of vitamin C. I managed a good set of mile repeats on Wednesday night and a hard hour on a treadmill (hill program at a fairly high setting) last night.

The bad was that a work colleague who joined my team at our company's ekiden in May this year, and who I would occasionally have contact with through my job, died during a trail running race, the 71 km Hasegawa Cup in far western Tokyo. That's him at far right in the photo of our ekiden team. The race goes through some pretty rugged terrain and there are a few places where if you fall off the trail you are a goner. Sadly he was the only person in the 15 years of the race to fall off one of those sections. It was terrible. Only 40 years old and as nice a guy as you'd want to meet. We were not really more than acquaintances, but it still hit pretty hard when attending his otsuya (like a wake the day before the funeral) especially the way it happened. Rest in peace Kazuhiro Tanaka. I hope I can finish the race for you next year.

On a slightly happier note, "my" beer is being consumed in the more discerning bars of Tokyo.